› added 7 months ago

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TIL that the first item ever securely purchased over the Internet was a compact disc of Sting's Ten Summoner's Tales. It sold for $12.48 plus shipping.

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4aba TIL: A 71-year-old man was convicted of murder for shooting the man who robbed him of $18,000 of property. The Assistant District Attorney argued that “The law recognizes the right to self-defense, but you can never take a human life for property,” that the man should have yelled for help instead.
wLE7J TIL: James Earl Jones had a terrible stutter as a child and was functionally mute for 8 years because of it. A high school teacher helped him end his silence through Jones' love of poetry.
Wk6nA TIL that there are more than 20,000 abandoned villages in Russia.
R78R8 TIL about the story Margaret Ann Bulkley, who dressed as a man for 56 years to become her alter-ego, Dr James Miranda Barry, 50 years before women were allowed to enroll into medical schools. Her secret was exposed when she died, after 46 years working as an army medical officer
woJNE TIL about Alejo Garza Tamez, a 77 year old rancher in Mexico. In Nov 2010 members of the Los Zetas cartel demanded he leave his property within 24 hours. Instead, he told his workers to go home, gathered all of his weapons, and mounted a one-man defense, killing 4 cartel members and incapacitating 2